Jan 23

Romans 13:8
8Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.

My hope for you is that you will be debt free by the end of this decade. It is possible, if you are disciplined. Let me say, if you've never been debt free, you have no idea the freedom you will experience when you no longer owe anybody anything.

And this is why it is important -- If God told you to go do something right now, some of you couldn't do it because you are in such financial bondage.

The Bible says we should not withhold the repayment of your debts, that we should let no debt remain outstanding. What does that mean? If you are only paying the minimum on your credit card, you are letting a debt remain outstanding. The Bible says don't do that. God is not going to bless that.

You need to set up repayment. You may be thinking that would be hard. It is hard! That's why most people are in debt. If it were easy, everybody would be rich. The fact is, most people do not have the character and the discipline to do what God tells them to do. First, give 10% to God; second, put 10% into savings; then, set up a repayment plan.

You say, "Wait a minute. Are you telling me to save before I pay off my debts?' That's exactly what I'm telling you to do -- because if you wait until you get all your debts paid off to start saving or tithing, you will never do it.

You may think you can't afford, but the truth is, you can't afford not to do it God's way.

I think something that's pretty substantial about this one is the line with "Owe nothing to anyone" and the way I take it, also don't put others into your own debt.


You knoww, everything we do for each other usually ends with somebody being in debt, and this verse really emphasizes an idea of doing things for each other out of love.
Honestly that was pretty harshly affecting me, cuz quite awhile ago, I used to actually bet money on a couple things and try and squeeze profit off of that from my New Years Money.
So like, I would get the New Years money, and sort of go "gamble" with my friends on things like a poker game, or something on TV or anything.

BUT ANYWAY, THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT. BASICALLY, don't make others feel BAD about you doing something GOOD for them. Make them feel like they deserve it even if they don't, cuz that's what Jesus would do.

I guess today's devo was talking about doing things without expecting anything back. That's what God wants us to do. Our goal is to serve others and not recieve anything back. God truly appreciates that and reconises that. I remember this in one of the sermons:
It's hard to do good things especially if it's a big sacrifice. For example, the offering everyweek. No one but you and God will know how much is in your offering. That's why we are given envelopes. He doesn't care about the amount of money that we chose to give each week, what matters more is what you were really sacrificing with a pure heart.
Try not to do good things only when there's an audience.

I thought that the dept in the credit card example in our devo explained it quite well....

Tomorow, exam week officially begins for me! Sooooooo nervous!
~audrey~